Cannot install fonts on Mac OS (Tiger): validation fails

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1

Hi,

I was told that the symbol fonts I have created with FCP 5.0 cannot be installed on an Apple Macintosh: The installation fails because they do not validate.

Since I am not familiar with the Apple platform, I used Google to find out: One of Apple’s new features in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is an “Advanced Font Validation”. My fonts passed 9 out of the 10 tests, but there was one error reported concerning the “Font Name Tables”. Unfortunately, I have no more information than that.

Some properties that can be set with FCP came to my mind. Here are my current settings:

  • in “Platform Manager”: Macintosh Roman and Microsoft Symbol
  • in “Naming”, for both Macintosh Roman/English and Microsoft Symbol/English - United Stated: everything is filled except “postscript name” and “include trademark”
  • in “Naming”/“Advanced” everything except “preferred family (Win)”, “sample text”, “compatible full (Mac)”, “preferred subfamily (Win)” and “PostScript CID” is filled

Since I don’t have a Mac to test the changes that I make to my fonts, I want to be sure: What properties exactly do I have to set for Tiger compatibility?

Any hints appreciated.
Thank you in advance

FontFan :slight_smile:

PS: Meanwhile (2005-08-16), the fonts have been reported to be working on Mac OS 10.3.6 “Panther”, but not on 10.4 “Tiger”, so it seems this is an issue with Tiger. Has anyone experienced similar problems with using fonts on a Mac?

2

It probably is related to the missing postscript name. Try the AutoNaming feature to ensure proper naming values and let us know if this solves the problem.

3

Erwin,

thanks for your help! It was indeed related to the PostScript name which contained invalid characters - spaces are not allowed there. I had not used AutoNaming which would have removed all the invalid characters automatically …

For those who care: Interesting details about naming tables, syntax rules etc. is at http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/name.htm

4

Thanks for your feedback.

P.s. another way to get valuable information about naming fields is to press the Help button on the right bottom corner of the Naming window.

5

I know the online help and I use it regularly. For this question, however, it could be more explicit: Make “should be” a “must be” and “should not” a “must not”. :wink: